Green Company loses subsidies, cuts jobs

The N.Y. Times reports that a Vestas, a wind turbine company, is cutting 2,300 jobs. That’s about 10% of its labor force.

The article reports that it was a result of “cash-strapped governments” needing to cut subsidies for alternative energy. The government couldn’t sustain the subsidies, so the jobs ran out.

And the trend might continue: “[Vestas] also warned that it could lay off a further 1,600 employees at factories in the United States if an important subsidy for the wind sector, known as a production tax credit, was pared back at the end of this year.”

This is just a reminder that if a government is going to have a clean energy industry on life support with subsidies, it had better make sure the rest of the economy is in healthy shape to support those subsidies. Governments should not villainize the economic sectors that are subsidizing their green energy efforts.